1999 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (93 Points)

DATE CONSUMED

Monday, December 31, 2012

VINTAGE

1999

WINERY/PRODUCER

Beringer Vineyards

WINE NAME

Private Reserve

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Cabernet Sauvignon?

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Napa Valley, California

ALCOHOL CONTENT

13.9%

PRICE PAID

This wine was a gift from a friend of a friend when we had a dinner party at our house about a year ago.

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

See above

BOUQUET

We decanted this bottle for a couple of hours since the wine’s been bottled-up for the past eleven years-ish.  Like most mature/well-aged wines, the exuberant fruit aromas of young wines is less prominent and the oak and earthy elements become more prevalent.  There are fruit and spice characteristics present on the nose (especially red and black fruits, along with savory herbs and black pepper), but the Napa Valley’s terrior and oak is more up-front than the fruits and spices.

 

TASTING NOTES

This is a FABULOUS Napa Cab at this point in time; it is mellow, smooth, rich, creamy, oaky, earthy, and well-balanced with the perfect amount of fruit and acidity, even after thirteen+ years after harvest.  There are the usual Napa Cab black and red fruits (plums, blackberries, blueberries, and black cherries), a basket or two of savory herbs like sage and rosemary, gorgeously smooth, silky, perfectly-sweet oak and tannins, and an earthiness that just about any mushroom-loving wine drinker would die for.  As wines age, they begin to lose their "fruitiness" and reveal more of their middle-aged characteristics of leather, earth, meats, minerals, etc.  And although I love a big, bold, fruity red wine as much as anybody, sometimes it's nice to experience a mature, evolved, leathery, meaty red, especially if it's being drunk with a fabulous steak smothered in a mushroom medley as this wine was.

Unlike most people, we try to buy wines and/or discover them (or as we receive them from our five winery wine clubs) and drink them from the oldest vintage to the newest vintage to allow the wines to age, mature, mellow, and develop to their fullest potential (at least to the fullest potential that our patience will allow).  Is there anything better than friends/relatives who can afford to bring over beautifully-aged wines when we host a dinner party (e.g. the wine being reviewed here)?!?!  In addition to this wine, we also opened and drank a 1998 Veuve Clicquot La Grand Dame to celebrate New Years Eve (this Cab Sav was MUCH better than the over-priced Champagne, which was also a gift from good friends about a year ago).  If we had the means and the room, I would LOVE to buy fine wines by the case and allow them to mature and develop for a decade or more.  This Napa Cab is a perfect example of how/why one should (if they can afford it) allow a wine with the appropriate structure to beautifully age, mellow, and develop over time to allow the wine to fully express itself to it’s fullest potential.

  

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We drank this wine with rib eye steaks smothered in Kosher salt, black pepper, and Herbs de Provence and (needless to say) grilled to perfection (medium-rare).  This fantastic Cab Sav paired beautifully with the rib eyes and would pair equally well with just about any red meat dish, like braised lamb shanks, prime rib, etc.

AGING POTENTIAL

Thirteen years after harvest, this wine is drinking beautifully right now and will probably continue to age, mature, develop, and evolve gorgeously for another ten to twenty years.  If you happen to have this wine in your cellar, I can’t imagine it getting any better than it is right now.  But like any good Napa Cab or Bordeaux, it has serious “legs” and will indeed be eminently drinkable for years to come.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

93

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

GOOD (even though I don’t know the exact price paid for this wine, I’m assuming this wine cost $100ish)

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.beringer.com/